Customer Service!
One of the biggest fails in business today is the whole area of Customer Service. It is an area that in my opinion so many people get wrong. By people I mean ALL employees who are customer facing. Once you deal with a customer in any shape or form you have an obligation to serve them as best you possibly can and in the best interest of your employer. It will also reflect on you as a person and this is equally important.
Customers like to think that they are the most important person in the world when they have a complaint to make or a product to be sold. And you know what, we should treat them like so. How many times have you called a company with a complaint only to be put on hold or to be dealt with by someone who basically could not give a damn. When this happens it irritates us and it damages the reputation of the company. The other thing that Customer Service people don’t realise is, that if they deal with people in a bad mannered way they run the risk of losing that customer for future business. In todays economic climate this is a no no.
We all have an obligation to serve the customer properly and make sure we retain their business.
As the old saying goes “The customer is always right”
Ciao…..
T.
Having worked in customer service I agree that it’s the responsibility of the customer facing employee to conduct themselves in a way which best serves both customer and employer, but what I think is missing in a lot of companies is a customer service system which enables the front line staff to do this. The system has to be set up so that the front facing staff can quickly and effectively solve the problem, answer the question or route the customer to the department who can. Otherwise, the staff can be as polite and helpful as possible, but the problem will still persist for days and weeks, generating many repeat calls or call ins from the customer, who is all the time getting angrier and angrier.